PlayStation All-Stars: Rise of the Reaper
by Coleiosis
Summary: After the death of Billy Ray Stillwell, a new evil has risen! Mr. Grimm has brought back the horrid race of Gargoyles; and with the power of the Polygon Man, an invasion has struck all corners of the universe. Only Ratchet, Pupuru, and their friends can stop this horror and bring back peace. Starring many other characters, this serial story is sure to be a smashing hit!
1. The Funeral of Billy Ray Stillwell

PlayStation All-Stars III

Rise of the Reaper

By Cole Bezotte and Needle Kirby

Introduction

I just had the nerve to come back.

On Saturday, December 27, 2014, I had successfully posted the sequel to what was supposed to be the finale of the cancelled longest-running PSASBR fanfiction series.

Was that too long of a sentence? Sorry.

The day after I posted the story "Shattered Innocence", I had beaten the game "Ratchet Deadlocked", which hardly had a story. It was basically a series of gladiator events Ratchet must go through in order to free himself and rescue all the other captive heroes. That game is the last we ever see of Sasha Phyronix, which really sucks because she is a very good character. That's why I brought her back in my stories.

Anyway, as I was saying, after playing that game, an idea suddenly smacked me on the head. After seeing the messages of those heroes who were freed from the Dreadzone, I was inspired for something. One of those heroes included Hydro-Girl; after seeing her, I thought that I may wanted to write a story about the planet Aquatos, where she lives. And yet, I'm always tempted to use a Twisted Metal character as a villain (an evil Twisted Metal character). But I could not think of whom to use at first.

I thought that Ratchet, Pupuru, and Hydro-Girl would be the main heroes. For the villain, I at first thought of the mythical Count Dracula, whom I used in the cancelled series for seasons five, six, and seven. But I thought that if I used Dracula, my story would not be horrific like the previous story "Shattered Innocence". Then I settled on the one legend whom David Jaffe messed with: the Grim Reaper.

That's right! David Jaffe, the creator of the Twisted Metal franchise, had taken the Grim Reaper in 1994 and turned him into a motorcycle-driving, flesh-eating, and child-threatening monster. Nobody likes the 2012 rendition of Mr. Grimm, yet the 2001 version was the most threatening. Not because he steals souls, but because he eats actual human flesh (shown off-screen). That's when I thought: "What if he were to eat ALIEN flesh?"

If there's anything that would threaten aliens, it would be the 2001 version of Mr. Grimm from Twisted Metal: Black. He is the main villain here in this story. As for any other new characters, only Hydro-Girl joins the fight (and possibly the team). And also, something from the cancelled series makes a surprise return.

I hope you all like this new serial adventure of the League of Heroes! Enjoy!

Chapter One: The Funeral of Billy Ray Stillwell

**(Note from the author: Sorry I ended our previous story so suddenly. It's time that a proper funeral was arranged for Billy Ray, the villain from last time.)**

At Midtown's nearest cemetery, Billy Ray Stillwell had been buried underneath the gravestone that held his name. Ratchet, Pupuru, Nathan Drake, Sly Cooper, and some others had buried him after the battle that took place recently. And as for Billy's truck, Junkyard Dog, it was sent to the Zorko Bros. Scrap and Salvage junkyard, where it was destroyed.

"That's it," Ratchet thought as rain began to sprinkle down onto him. "No more being a coward! If I want to get rid of any troubles, I'll have to face them like a man! I'll fight them just as I fight physical beings! That's a promise! And yet, I still can't forget about letting poor Billy die. Even though he is responsible for my mother's death, he shall be forgiven."

Later that day, the gang got into their vehicles and drove back to Los Angeles, where the rest of the League of Heroes was waiting. It had been a tough battle, and everyone needed their rest. Yet Ratchet still wanted to say something about this tragic event.

"Shouldn't I say a few words on his behalf?" Ratchet asked Nathan as he hopped into one of the cars brought.

Nathan tried to think about what to say about this. He then spoke: "He was once a redneck farmer for corn, and…" Nathan could not think of anything else.

"I just don't get it at all!" Ratchet said. "Is there so much to this psychotic mind study that we don't know of?"

"Looks like we'll be researching on psychology when we get back," Nathan replied. "Perhaps it will help us understand the patients at Blackfield Asylum more accurately."

And speaking of the Blackfield Asylum, someone new took Billy's place. All the way back at Los Angeles, at the Blackfield Asylum, a new criminal had been arrested and taken to Billy's former prison cell. Two guards stood outside the cell, chatting with each other and not being interested in what the prisoner was thinking.

Sitting against the wall of the cell was a man in a tattered military uniform, also wearing a cracked skull as a helmet. He stared down at his lunch, imagining it to be what he dreams of eating sometime in his life: alien flesh.

"In here, you lose track of time," the man thought to himself. "Hours melt into days, and so on. After so much time in solitary, I should be getting better. But in my heart, I know there is no cure either for me or the girl. Everyone at first thought that Pupuru was crazy when she told about her dream, but I was the first to believe her. When she told of the one known as Mr. Grimm, it gave me such a tremendous idea to BE whom she used to fear. From now on, I shall be known as Mr. Grimm here in the real world. Like Ratchet made Pupuru's dream come true in the good way, I shall do the same in the BAD way. It will also make me hungry for something I've never eaten all my life: alien flesh. It's funny; I've never had Lombax before."

**(Note from the author: Remember, what happened in the cancelled series is all a dream. If you have not read any of the other stories, go back and do it now.)**

In the cell next to Mr. Grimm, the former FBI agent Stone brooded about his defeat. "That fool Billy thought that Ratchet could help him!" Stone thought silently to himself. "Then he definitely went off the deep end! Grimm here looks as though he's on more than just a mission. If he wants to eat Ratchet as his greatest feast, then so be it! He shall be my new assassin, and I know just what to do now."

Mr. Grimm looked up at the ceiling and sniffed the air. Suddenly a clue came to his mind that this cell was not only Billy's, but also the former Dark Knight's (remember the Dark Knight turned into his true self as Marcus Kane). "Strange…" Grimm thought. "I smell the toxic aroma of Gargoyles."

The two guards standing by Grimm's cell both looked at Stone's evil smirk. They thought that something was not right here. "Looks like he's up to no good," one of the guards said. "Remind me to shut him up later."

The next morning, Ratchet and the others arrived at the mansion of the League of Heroes, in which it still stood tall in the suburbs.

As Ratchet and his friends walked inside, all the other members of the League of Heroes were so excited to see them back home safely. But one person in particular seemed to be acting very strange.

Ratchet turned to see Sasha Phyronix slowly walking towards him. She looked very upset and excited both at the same time, which seemed very awkward for Ratchet. "Uh, Sasha?" Ratchet spoke to her. "Are you okay? You seem to be acting very weird."

"Where the heck were you?!" Sasha replied distraughtly. "I was worried sick about you! I thought you were dead! That freaky farmer was hunting you down like no one's business, and…and…!"

"It's alright, Sasha! Billy is DEAD now! I'm still alive! Everything's just fine!"

"I thought my father would never allow you to marry me someday. I thought you had REALLY turned coward!"

"Who said we were going to wed? I haven't yet decided on my TRUE girlfriend. And I suppose it will take me a long time until I actually reach a decision. I just don't want you or Talwyn to be upset."

"Thanks for calming me down, Ratchet," Sasha replied calmly. "It's nice to see you've come back home safely."

"Home…" That word rang through Ratchet's mind like the loud ringing of a bell. "Now that's a word I've never heard in a long time," he thought quietly. "Perhaps it's telling me I'm doing something wrong. Maybe… I've been treating everyone unfairly. I'll have to discuss this with Pupuru some other time."

Several hours later, back at the Blackfield Asylum, the two guards who stood by Mr. Grimm's cell were both killed by a very sharp weapon. Agent Shepherd came to investigate the scene and noticed that Grimm's cell was completely empty.

"I don't know who caused this…" Shepherd said to Carl Roberts, who was taking notes about the scene, "…but I'm not waiting around to find out! If you find any more corpses, I want them examined immediately."

As Carl dashed off down the hallway, Shepherd turned left and saw a nasty surprise. "It can't be!" he thought as he looked deep into Stone's empty cell. "Stone has disappeared! Perhaps HE is the cause of all this! I knew that dirty traitor couldn't be trusted!"

Shepherd's suspicions were correct; for outside the asylum, two escaped prisoners drove a motorcycle with a sidecar attached. Grimm piloted the vehicle while Stone sat in the sidecar, thinking ambitiously about their master plan. "This will never fail!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "We shall be the masters of Earth!"

Suddenly, Mr. Grimm stopped the motorcycle at a dead end. What Stone had exclaimed upset him. "Masters of Earth?!" Grimm said. "That sounds too predictable! It's what every cartoony villain says! ANYONE would catch us in our act if they heard our vow, whether it be a strong hero or a random citizen. Why not do something that no one would get the clue of?"

"Do you want alien flesh for dinner or not?" Stone replied.

"I DO! Let's just not be too predictable. Let's just say… let's unleash the beasts!"

"I think I know what you're saying. Head to junkyard quickly, and we'll see if we can reuse the Dark Knight's secret formula to recreate the Gargoyles."

The two villains drove into the night, going all the way out of the downtown area, past the suburbs, through the fields, and into the Zorko Bros. Scrap and Salvage. They looked around and saw that most of the Gargoyle corpses had been burned by Shepherd's SWAT unit (from our previous story).

Only now, Mr. Grimm had the chance to reform the horrid species of monsters.

Mr. Grimm parked the motorcycle at what was once the Dark Knight's personal shed. He and Stone quietly crept into the abandoned shed and turned on their flashlights. At first, all they could see were cobwebs and many tarantulas. They had to search thoroughly until they found the one thing they desired. They had found a torn book lying upon a crafting table, coated in dust.

Mr. Grimm picked up the book and wiped the dust from its cover. It was the book Marcus had created when he was the Dark Knight, writing the formulas on how to create his army of Gargoyles. "This is just what we need," Grimm said as he showed the book to Stone.

"Perfect!" Stone replied. "Now that we have what we need, we shall have an army of the most hideous creatures alive! The Gargoyles shall be reborn!"

The next morning was a very beautiful day; a day perfect enough to go to the nearby beach.

**(Note from the author: The beach was first used in the cancelled series. Now I can use it again for a different circumstance.)**

Ratchet walked along with Pupuru while the others took their cars to drive to there faster. Ratchet wanted to walk with Pupuru mainly because he had something very important to discuss about with her.

Along the way, Ratchet sighed heavily and spoke up: "I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, and I thought that maybe I can do you a big favor. It must be a very long time since you've last been at your hometown, and I was thinking maybe…" Ratchet sighed again, then continued to ask the big question: "How would you like to go back home?"

"Are you serious?" Pupuru replied, shocked. "Why would you want to send me back?"

"I'm beginning to think that making this team is a big mistake. I practically snatched everyone from their true homes and forced them to here in Los Angeles. I don't think anyone was on board with this idea."

"But Ratchet, you don't know for sure what everyone else is thinking. To us, it's a blessing to be a great, big team of strong heroes. It was a blessing for you to bring me here with you. I thought I was to be imprisoned forever until you came to take me in. Face it, Ratchet: we're all glad to be here as a team. We're really happy about this."

"But don't you miss your friends Puni and Etanya? I'm sure they're worried sick about you."

"They already know how Agent Stone arrested me, and they know I'm here. I can visit that town once in a great while; but for now, I'm sticking with you till the end."

"That actually makes me feel a little better."

When Ratchet arrived at the beach with Pupuru, he found someone sitting on a motorcycle nearby. Grimm had finally met up with Ratchet, and now was his chance to strike.

Mr. Grimm slowly reached into his back pocket and pulled out what seemed to be a very sharp scythe. But before he could throw it, Ratchet already caught sight of him.

"Don't think I don't know what you're doing!" Ratchet called to him as he pulled out his Omniwrench. "I'm already prepared for you! And if that IS you, Mr. Grimm, how did you escape from the dream?"

"I didn't come from the dream," Mr. Grimm replied. "I made myself the villain that you already know; I decided to follow in his footsteps. But now, I want to see if you are juicy enough for me."

Mr. Grimm quickly threw the scythe at Ratchet, hoping to stab it into his head. Ratchet was quick enough to hit the scythe in mid-air with his wrench. But right when he touched it, it exploded violently at his face; it was actually an explosive with a scythe shell. Flames began to touch him all over as he caught on fire. Groaning, he quickly dropped down to the ground and rolled down the sandy ground. Pupuru ran over to him, took off her cape, and laid it down upon him, distinguishing the flames.

"You may have been lucky, Ratchet," Mr. Grimm silently thought. "But it's not over yet. This was merely a test to see if you truly are juicy enough for me. Since I roasted and toasted you with that secret weapon of mine, now I know you definitely are good enough for eating. You are completely vulnerable! I'll be back for you, Ratchet! I don't want you to keep me starving for very long!" With that, he drove away on his motorcycle.

Ratchet cooled himself off in the beach's waters; steam rose from where his burns once stung. "Are you okay, Ratchet?" Pupuru asked her as she wrung out her cape.

"Well…" Ratchet replied, "…I have learned one lesson: never dive into a fireplace. If that character thinks he can overtake us, we should fight back at him and show him his wrong doing!"

"IF we know of his plan. We don't know what he's up to yet."

"And I'm afraid that might take a while."

Later, Mr. Grimm arrived back at the junkyard, where he reunited with Stone. Stone in the meantime was continuously stirring the formula that created the Gargoyles. Soon, many vicious creatures began to walk clear out of the giant mixing pot, one after another. But the more strength Stone put into the stirring, the nastier each Gargoyle looked.

"I cannot believe how successful we are in this!" Stone exclaimed in triumph. "I can FEEL such power!"

Mr. Grimm ignored Stone and turned to face those Gargoyles that were already produced. "Monsters and former slaves of the Dark Knight!" he began to announce in a loud tone. "As your new leader, I now bring you all back to the land of the living! Unlike our traitor, I guarantee you all the alien flesh you can devour! If you want it, you shall have it! But you must save something for me: one male Lombax. If you find him, you must bring him to me alive as my heart's desire and prize! Now… WHO'S HUNGRY?!"

The Gargoyles roared and screeched loudly as they gnashed their razor-sharp teeth and beat their chests hard. They were very eager to eat the flesh that they can imagine. "Perfect…" Mr. Grimm silently thought to himself. "When I get my hands on that Lombax, it will be the end of his pitiful family! Billy Ray had already killed his mother, so I shall finish the job! Also, I'll give Stone his just reward…after he's served his purpose!"

Later that evening, Ratchet called an emergency meeting with the League of Heroes. He had received news from FBI spies about Mr. Grimm's plan to send his new Gargoyles everywhere. Now was Ratchet's chance to inform his friends about this and stop the crime once and for all.

But he seemed a bit uneasy; he may be on a special mission, but he did not want to let everyone down this time. He was afraid that things would end up like last time when he ran from Billy Ray. "Wait a minute!" he thought right when Billy came to his mind. "Now I remember what I said at his funeral! If I have problems like these, I should face it like a man! I should not be such a coward, so I must face this as calmly as I can."

Everyone came to the dining room to listen to what Ratchet had to say. But before he could say anything, an urgent message came to his comlink. He activated it to see who was contacting him, but he received a nasty surprise when he saw who it was. He never thought that Mr. Grimm would call him at such a time. Ratchet pressed the button to allow the message to play:

"Greetings, Ratchet! You've probably noticed by now that my new Gargoyles have struck out at last. As far as my readings show, the Gargoyles have hit every known realm that you know, including the homes of your petty friends. But I have one question for you; I know you are in league with the long-dead Dreadzone, so I want to make you this offer. Here in Aquatos, I have with me the once mighty hero Hydro-Girl. If you dare attack me, she will be next on my menu of main courses. But if you peacefully surrender to me, it will be YOU as the meal instead of her. You can either save yourself or her. If you want to surrender, then meet me at Veldin. The choice is yours, Ratchet."

The transmission ended right there, leaving Ratchet's pressure at a high level. All those planets, including where he grew up, were in terrible danger. All he was doing was standing right there in fear; something had to be done. "Don't be a coward!" he then thought. "I must face this enemy bravely! I must fight for what is right!"

"Listen closely!" Ratchet announced. "This is what we are going to do: Sasha, you go to Marcadia and protect your father. Angela, you will head to the Oboro Forest; there, you will meet Puni and Etanya, and make sure to kill whatever Gargoyle that lives. Kat and Raven, you both will go to Aquatos and free Hydro-Girl while I distract Mr. Grimm. I will take Pupuru with me to Veldin; we'll distract Mr. Grimm there long enough for you to free Hydro-Girl. That way, he won't eat her."

"But what about YOU?" Pupuru interrupted. "I don't want YOU to get eaten. If we're saving Hydro-Girl, who will save YOU?"

Ratchet looked down at Pupuru and sighed. "That is for fate to decide," he said to her. "That's why I need you with me. We're going to a place that I had left for so long."

After all arrangements were made, everyone grabbed their weapons and supplies and left the mansion. Each hero went to whatever place he or she was assigned to; no matter where it would lead, there would always be a group of Gargoyles keeping many townspeople in peril. It was the heroes' duty to free those troubled people from whatever danger that Mr. Grimm used.

When Sasha arrived at Marcadia a few minutes later, she already saw a threatening Gargoyle invasion outside her father's presidential building. She was desperate to rescue her father before he was massacred. Quickly, after landing near the building, she took out her laser pistol and began to fire rapidly at whatever Gargoyle was in sight. Finally, after tiring herself out so quickly with the fighting, she cleared the way to her father's office. Once she opened the door, she found him unharmed; the mission was complete for her, but not for everyone else. There was still work to do; there was soon to be a secret weapon to unleash upon Mr. Grimm at Veldin.

**THE NEXT CHAPTER IS SOON TO COME! WE SHALL SEE ANGELA'S MISSION TO THE OBORO FOREST AND THE SURPRISE COMING OF A FAMILIAR FIGURE! UNTIL THEN, SEE YOU SOON!**


	2. Oboro Forest

Chapter Two: Oboro Forest

At the Oboro Forest, near Pupuru's hometown, Angela Cross met HER Gargoyles as well. But it was difficult for her to aim her pistol at them fully due to her colorblindness.

**(Note from the author: You probably forgot what the Dark Knight, Marcus Kane, did to Angela in the first story. He used that Omnitaser on her head, which effected her sight heavily, making her colorblind.)**

Once she cleared the forest of the Gargoyles, she suddenly caught sight of two female figures. "Is there something I can help you with?" she spoke to them. "Do you two know my friend Pupuru?"

"We're her friends," one of them replied. "We're Puni and Etanya. You know where Pupuru is?"

"She's with me and the League of Heroes now. It's a long story, but I'm willing to share it with you."

"You know why Pupuru had to leave our town?" Etanya asked.

"I don't believe he would ever go crazy," Angela replied. "But for the first time, she DID. That gigantic dream she had caused her mind to go completely insane. It seemed like she was to be trapped inside her impossible fantasy world. But for the first time, it finally came true…"

Meanwhile, a few miles away, a lone figure knelt at a round stone placed upon a small table. "Speak to me, Polygon Man!" the figure spoke up to the stone. "Speak to me, and show me my enemy!"

"My dear Gigadis!" the Polygon Man spoke through the stone. "I know the true warrior who stole your heart's desire away! I know the one creature that you may despise!" He showed Gigadis the image of Ratchet standing right in front of him.

Seeing Ratchet right there seemed to have lifted a veil inside Gigadis. He suddenly began to remember something from long ago. "Now I remember!" he exclaimed. "That face! That name! It's all too familiar! He is the dreaded creature that was in Pupuru's dream; that nightmare of hers caused her to go mad and attack this town! That creature must be found and destroyed at once!"

"NO!" the Polygon Man snapped at him. "He must be kept alive as a meal to Grimm!"

"He can forget about the Lombax; Ratchet is now MY target! I will hunt him down and make sure Pupuru does not see him again!"

"If you dare kill Ratchet, Grimm will certainly kill YOU for punishment!"

"That won't be a big deal; I can always kill HIM as well. May Pupuru never lay eyes upon Ratchet ever again!"

Back at the forest, Angela finished telling her tale of how Pupuru was taken to Earth. Puni and Etanya were very shocked to hear how it happened; but they were relieved and excited to hear how she defeated the identity of the Dark Knight and brought him back to his true form as Marcus Kane. Things became happier for them as they listened to how she saved Ratchet from the bullet of Billy Ray's gun.

"That is very fascinating!" Puni exclaimed. "But what will happen next? Is Pupuru still with Ratchet?"

"She still is…" Angela replied. "…and they're both on a mission. But it's something very important, and so we shouldn't be involved in it. But, if we can get Ratchet's permission, you can join the League of Heroes and become a part of us."

"That sounds amazing!" Etanya said excitedly. "Our wizardry is at your service!"

Before anything else was said, Gigadis came in from behind and made his attack. "Another Lombax!" he thought as he fully approached the girls. "This will be easier than I thought! Perhaps I can end the accursed race!"

With that, he pulled out a new weapon of his own design; it was a special bomb that released visions when struck. "That puny Puni will be the first victim to know that Pupuru truly is mad!" Gigadis thought as he tossed the bomb ahead of him.

Angela quickly drew out her blaster pistol, but it was too late. Once the bomb landed hard on the ground, it split open and released a thick cloud of smoke. Angela and Etanya accidentally breathed in the smoke and passed out cold. Only Puni remained, holding her breath and surviving the thick cloud. But that's when the visions of her dear friend came to haunt her; she began to see Pupuru stalking about like a mad person.

"It's her!" Puni thought as she stared hurtfully at the vision. "But…she's mocking…hurt…she's angry…as if…I've failed her!"

Puni quickly closed her eyes and looked away for a moment. Right then, the vision disappeared from plain sight; Puni now knew what to do. "None of it was real," she thought. "That was merely a wizard's trick; it was really a psychedelic. It simply emitted a hallucinatory gas! But my own will enabled me to overcome it! And now is my chance to beat HIM!"

"You surprise me, girl!" Gigadis called to Puni. "I expected you to be an abject, whimpering shell of a fool by now! But it really doesn't matter… for I've toyed with you long enough! I'll deal with you, then I'll go and destroy Ratchet like I promised!"

But before Gigadis could do anything, he was suddenly tripped to the ground. Angela had regained her consciousness; now was her turn to attack Gigadis. But Gigadis was smart enough to reach into the pouch he brought with him and pull out another mystic bomb.

"He's getting desperate…" Angela thought silently. "He's reaching for another weapon."

"You won't escape me again!" Gigadis exclaimed as he got back up to his feet. "You can't! I won't let you!"

"He's frantic!" Angela thought. "He's REALLY over-anxious. His fumbling will make this battle short and easy."

Quickly, Angela dove after Gigadis and snatched his bag away from him. "You've had it, mister!" she said to him. "This bag won't help you THIS time!"

"NO!" Gigadis yelled. "You were beaten! I had won! You can't out-fight me now!"

"Gigadis, you're a phony!" Angela replied. "I could have flattened you any time I felt like it! I was toying with you till now… but you're too dumb to realize it!" She began to notice Gigadis' rage overcoming his judgment. "It's working!" she thought. "I'm getting to him! He's starting to tremble with rage!"

"You dare speak that way…TO ME?!" Gigadis roared violently. "You think I NEED my weapons to defeat you?! You think I'm not your master, anyway?!"

"You just KNOW it, you moron!"

Gigadis charged straight at Angela and began to punch her head very hard, but only with the strength he truly possessed. "Wow!" Angela thought. "There's no denying his strength OR his skill! But I didn't train to be a Megacorp agent for nothing; my skill will still save me."

"You can dodge SOME of my blows, you weasel!" Gigadis screamed. "But you can't dodge them ALL! Soon, it will be your FINISH!"

Angela finally had to idea to start blocking Gigadis' blows with her quick arms. The first blow was a success, but Gigadis had another idea; if he were to keep up what he was doing, he would go NOWHERE with this. So he jumped up and grabbed his eager hands around Angela's neck. He tried to choke her, but she immediately pushed him off and threw him to the ground.

"That's enough whip out of you, jerk-face!" Angela taunted as she picked him up and hung him over her shoulder. He was out unconscious and helpless; now Angela could take him into custody.

But before anything happened, a new visitor approached the scene. "You have betrayed me!" said an angry female voice. "You vowed to remove the Lombax forever!"

Angela was a bit scared when she suddenly heard that voice, she dropped Gigadis back down to the ground. "Screw him!" she thought as she gathered Puni and Etanya with her. "Now that my business with the Gargoyles is done, we can get out of here peacefully and leave these two sore losers in the dust."

The girl named Cliora came at Gigadis and gave him a piece of her mind. She was very upset that his mission was a failure, but his only excuse was that Angela got in the way and that he had no other choice. In a fit of rage, Cliora began to claim that Gigadis was lying and that he was being simply lazy. It seemed like this argument was never going to end.

**SEE YOU NEXT TIME AT A DIFFERENT REALM WITH A DIFFERENT HERO AND A DIFFERENT VILLAIN!**


	3. To Destroy the Realm Eternal

Chapter Three: To Destroy the Realm Eternal

Deep within the depths of the earth lied the most horrifying and destructive realm: the Underworld.

The creature known as Minion stood guard at the entrance, watching out for whatever intruder was to come. Finally, someone came and stood before him; the god of war, Kratos, was there to challenge him to a battle.

"Halt!" Minion called out. "Halt and identify thyself!"

"I am Kratos, son of Zeus and god of war!" the intruder replied. "I have to undo the evil deeds you have done to this planet!"

"Stand fast, interloper! I be Minion, son of Ash and guardian of the depths! No further shalt thou go—unless it be on thy knees, in abject submission and surrender!"

"The Ghost of Sparta defers to NONE!"

"Then the god of war DIES!" With that, Minion held his fiery whip in hand and struck it at his opponent, only to be met with the powerful Blades of Chaos.

"Not so, thou abhorrence!" Kratos exclaimed as he fought back. "I leave others to dwell upon the right and wrong of matters! As for me, the ecstasy of battle is reward enow!" He plunged a mighty fist downwards to bring Minion cowardly cringing on the ground.

But never before had Kratos faced a foe with the power of Minion. "I have warned thee for the final time!" Minion exclaimed. "Till now, I have stayed mine arm from unleashing a fatal blow—but you leave me no choice-!"

"Do then thy worst, demon!" Kratos replied as he continued to punch down. "No groundless threat shall put Kratos to route!" He continued to give Minion his beating, but Minion had the quickest skill and agility, making him the best of all Underworld creatures. "By the majesty of mighty Olympus!" Kratos continued. "Never before has any being broken the grip of Kratos to escape my most potent blow! Even on thy back, thou art a foe to be feared! But my blades shall give thee pause!"

"I am not impressed! Thy words do little more than bolster thine own faltering confidence!" With that, Minion wrapped his fiery whip around Kratos and flung him aside. That was enough time for him to stand back up and regain his strength; but before he knew it, Kratos regained his standing. "How can thou recover so quickly?!" Minion stuttered in fear.

"My patience is ended!" Kratos exclaimed as he charged fully at his opponent.

We will return to this scene in a moment. For now, let us focus on something more important about this mission.

Let us go to another battle taking place. At Paris, France, we find Sly Cooper with his friends Bentley and Murray, locked in combat against other Gargoyles the Polygon Man had sent. But the horrid creatures soon had their own idea. They went over to the Eiffel Tower; there was parked a bulldozer vehicle that might had come in handy for them. They planned to use it to completely wreck such a beautiful monument.

Murray saw what they were planning to do, so he stole the group's van to stop them. He charged at full speed towards the Gargoyles and rammed them very hard. The bulldozer was destroyed, and so was the foul creatures' opportunity.

Sly and Bentley were able to finish off the remaining monsters and shot them down dead. "Our mission is done here," Sly exclaimed as he gathered everyone back around. "But I have a feeling of some strange sudden uneasiness. Something is definitely tugging at me."

"Sly!" said a familiar voice from behind. "May I ask what the heck is going on here?!" Sly turned and saw that Carmelita Fox had caught up with them.

"Sorry, Carmelita," Sly said to her. "I know there are monsters everywhere sent by a guy named Grimm, but there's something else to this. I feel as if there is a power even stronger than I can comprehend; and I'm not waiting around to find out."

Suddenly, one more Gargoyle fell down on top of Sly's van. Everyone looked up and saw someone standing on the rooftop of a building; it was Jin Kazama, who had appeared in Pupuru's dream a long while ago.

"Next time you want to kill monsters…" Sly barked at him, "…don't drop them on people's property."

"I'm just here to inform you about something important," Jin replied, looking down at the four confused faces. "I am looking for the young girl named Pupuru; I know that she may hold the key to end this invasion."

"You know her, eh? She's on a very important mission with Ratchet at the moment. But we can take you to Los Angeles once all this is fixed up. And I certainly hope the authorities can help out in the best way possible. But it will take more than an army to destroy this menace."

Meanwhile, Kratos and Minion continued their battle until they reached the earth's surface. Minion at first wanted Kratos to chase him in order to tire him out. But wherever he ran, the Blades of Chaos followed him.

"You're flight is useless, inhuman one!" Kratos shouted to him. "There is no place on Earth where you can be safe from the power of the Ghost of Sparta!"

"Bah!" Minion scoffed in reply. "No mere surface dweller can defeat me! You fight for your cause, mighty one! But I fight for MINE! My people have earned the right to claim the earth's surface for their own!"

"You had your chance, demon! Now, you can expect no mercy!"

"Silence! I now dispose of you as easily as I shall destroy ALL of humanity!"

But Minion did not have a chance against the god of war. Kratos began to spin his mighty Blades of Chaos and created a powerful whirlwind around Minion. "This whirlwind is strong enough to carry you high into space…" Kratos said as it grew bigger, "…to keep you helpless as you spin faster than the speed of sound!"

Minion, caught in the whirlwind, saw himself float up into the sky, closer to the sun. "I shall join you before you can fall!" Kratos continued. "For I have not done with you yet! You shall return to the dark depths from whence you came!"

Pounding the top of a nearby mountain with his awesome blades, the mighty Kratos causes the entire peak to fall upon the Underworld, where Minion landed. He had sealed it-and the strange race which dwells within—forever.

"Thus do I return the demon to his own kind!" Kratos exclaimed triumphantly. "For Earth's surface shall never be violated while the son of Zeus endures!"

**YEA, VERILY! COME BACK NEXT TIME WHEN A FEW MORE FAMILIAR FACES APPEAR! THAT'S WHEN EVERYTHING WILL TIE IN A LOT FASTER! UNTIL THEN, SEE YOU SOON!**


	4. When the Captain Commands

Chapter Four: When the Captain Commands

There were many other places where terror had struck; however, there were not only Gargoyles but actual villains.

High above the skyscrapers of Midtown, we find the preacher Jebidiah running for his life with a young girl next to him. "Keep moving, Nepgear!" Jebidiah exclaimed as he ran. "Don't stop until you are sure we've lost him!"

Behind them, the creature known simply as Black came marching towards them, blasting a laser ray. Though every shot made him miss, he continued to move on until he reached his victims. "EXTERMINATE!" he exclaimed. "EXTERMINATE!"

Every time Nepgear looked back, she saw that Black was catching up to her very quickly. She suddenly stopped once she reached a dead end. "Now that it seems like I'm caught…" she thought silently, "…it's my turn to strike back!"

As Black was getting closer, Nepgear quickly transformed to her goddess form of Purple Sister (the sister of Neptune, also known as Purple Heart). Black was suddenly shocked by the transformation, but he planned to keep on fighting.

Jebidiah was paying no attention to what was going on anymore. "Lord protect me from this evil…" he muttered in exhaustion.

Nepgear fought her way to push Black off the edge of the building, but the rest was done by someone else. Suddenly, Jak came and blasted Black right off that rooftop and watched him fall all the way down to the street below. But hearing his scream as he fell meant that it was not over; not until the biggest source of this attack was destroyed completely.

"That's strange," Jak spoke up to Nepgear. "I've never seen you before."

"But I'm starting to get a strange feeling," Nepgear replied. "I seem to be remembering something…important. I'm thinking of… Somehow, the figure of a girl is coming to my mind. Her name is being cleared for me now… Yes! Now I remember! Pupuru! She needs me! I must go find her! But first I must find my sister for assistance."

Meanwhile, at the snowy roads of Black Rock Ridge, Spike and PaRappa had fought their many Gargoyles and cleared the area. In the process, they had captured the villain known as Specter and the mighty fighter Heihachi Mishima. And it was all thanks to Spike's powerful monkey-catching nets; they were strong enough even to catch a human being.

"Well that takes care of it," Spike said as he looked around to check for any more Gargoyles. "But I have a strange feeling about this attack."

"Me too, Spike," PaRappa replied. "I seem to have that strange feeling as well. But the problem is: where can it be?"

"I'm not waiting around to find out. We've got to know who's behind EVERYTHING before this invasion gets worse!"

At the horrid land of Transylvania, we find grim and foreboding the castle of the diabolical Count Dracula. Nariko and Cole MacGrath fought the vampire himself, as well as his creation known as SweetToothimus Prime.

**(Note from the author: SweetToothimus Prime is the Sweet Tooth ice cream truck transformed into what is called a "Sweet Bot".)**

"Don't try to come at me, MacGrath!" SweetToothimus Prime exclaimed as he fired a laser from his hand-held cannon. "One blast is all it will take to destroy you forever!"

But Cole was faster than Prime had thought; he possessed powers beyond imagination. And so it was easy for him to destroy Prime and turn him into a pile of broken metal.

"You may have destroyed my machine!" Dracula taunted at Nariko and Cole. "But you cannot defeat me! My powers are flawless and beyond anyone's imagination!"

"Don't underestimate my sword!" Nariko replied. "I use it to fight for right and freedom!"

**(Note from the author: Because I am making the dialogue so dull, I'm just going to cut the fight short right here.)**

Dracula's lair may have been destroyed by such great power from Cole and Nariko, but the vampire himself managed to escape. "You have not seen the last of me!" Dracula exclaimed as he transformed into a bat and flied away.

"I hope we HAVE seen the last of him," Cole said as he watched Dracula fly out of the scene. "And yet, something strange is in the air."

"I already know that the Polygon Man is behind it," Nariko replied. "But there is something ELSE with him; he is combining his power with someone else's."

"But if the Polygon Man is not behind the WHOLE thing, then who IS? That's what I want to know."

Later, at Los Angeles, Nepgear desperately ran for the League of Heroes' mansion in search of her sister Neptune. She knew for a fact that Pupuru had to do with the entire danger that the Polygon Man and Mr. Grimm were causing.

But right when Nepgear arrived, she found that Neptune was already there with Dart Feld.

**(Note from the author: Dart Feld is the main protagonist from the Red Eye Dragoon franchise. I used him in the cancelled series, but a request from my partner Needle Kirby told me to bring him back for this story.)**

"Have you found Pupuru yet?" Nepgear asked as she approached them. She transformed back to her normal form.

"No," Neptune replied. "We just got here ourselves. We don't know if Pupuru is here for sure."

"Why are we just wasting time?" Dart came in. "Let's see who's home."

Neptune softly knocked on the mansion's door, and someone immediately opened it to answer. Captain Qwark had come to the door to answer Neptune's call. "Excuse me?" he spoke up. "Do I know you?"

"Maybe you have, and maybe you haven't," Dart replied. "We're here to see a young girl…"

"Of course!" Qwark interrupted. "You want to see Pupuru. But you can't see her right now because she's on a very important mission with Ratchet."

In the living room, Clank heard what Qwark said, in which it set his mind to where Ratchet had taken Pupuru to. "I really wish Ratchet would have taken me with him," he thought silently to himself. "He really means a lot to me."

Once Nepgear and the others walked in, she suddenly saw Clank sitting right there on the couch. She smiled really big and quickly ran towards him. "I never thought I would actually see Secret Agent Clank in real life!" she exclaimed happily. "I've got so many questions to ask you!"

"Well, you're in the wrong place," Clank whimpered in reply. "I prefer you hug Dr. Nefarious over there."

"I don't think so, cute little Clank! You're stuck with me!"

Meanwhile, Neptune and Qwark had argued about what would happen in the next few minutes. "Don't say I didn't warn you if Ratchet keeps you away!" Qwark exclaimed at Neptune. "But it's your choice if you want violate his orders."

"We're going for Pupuru anyway," Neptune replied. "We know she has the key to stop this invasion."

"Then go on, you idiots! Like I said, don't say I didn't warn you!"

**ARE THINGS GOING TO QUICK FOR YOU? I'M JUST TRYING TO HURRY THIS THING UP SO WE CAN GET TO THE GOOD STUFF. UNTIL THEN, SEE YOU SOON!**


	5. Aquatos

Chapter Five: Aquatos

**(Note from the author: Sorry I made the previous chapter too quick and simple. This time, we shall see a fully-detailed battle at Aquatos.)**

At the planet Aquatos, a submarine of unusual design swam through the blue waters. Inside, we find Mr. Grimm's accomplice Stone, piloting the vehicle while keeping someone as a hostage. Behind him in the cockpit, the hero known as Hydro Girl was kept in a tank of water. There was no escape for her; only Stone knew the correct password to unlock the tank and release her.

"Now that I have you as a hostage…" Stone spoke up as he drove along, "…I shall take you to Grimm and you shall become his next meal. And the best part is… nothing can get in my way."

But Stone was wrong; suddenly, he saw two familiar figures descend into the water. He easily recognized them as Kat and Raven, the two shifters. They used their gravitational powers to create a force-field around themselves, so that they can breathe easier. The field of air would help them breathe while in water.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Stone exclaimed in frustration.

"But that proves that I'm not alone on this," Hydro Girl taunted behind him. "You cannot underestimate our might!"

Enraged, Stone pressed a button to launch four torpedoes at the shifters. But Kat and Raven used their powers to push the torpedoes away.

"He underestimates our powers too much," Kat spoke up to Raven. "But we shouldn't destroy that submarine. Hydro Girl is in there, so we shouldn't hurt her while she's in there."

"We should bring the sub up to the surface first," Raven replied. "It's there that we will do the rest of the work."

Stone angrily drove his sub forward, hoping to hit Kat and Raven with full force. But, out of his hard anger, he still underestimated the shifters as they used their powers to raise his sub up to the surface. Once it reached a boat dock, Stone angrily burst out of his cockpit and raised a rifle at the shifters. "Now it will be just like in that other world," he thought silently to himself. "Pupuru will never know what's REALLY happening!"

Once Kat and Raven ascended to the surface, Stone immediately opened fire. But even his bullet fire could not penetrate the force field. Finally, his anger fully unleashed itself as he pulled out a bomb from his submarine's storage compartment. He tossed it up into the air, then quickly ducked out of the way. Raven was fast enough to catch Stone before he was able to run away.

Kat at first thought about heading for Stone with Raven, but Hydro Girl was her biggest thought. She ran towards the sub and used her powers on the bomb before it landed on it. The bomb was thrown into the water before it was detonated. The fuse was snuffed out right before the bomb exploded.

"They may have caught me," Stone thought. "But they still don't know the password to unlock Hydro Girl's tank."

Kat hopped into the sub, more than ready to finally free Hydro Girl. She faced the tank and raised her hand to use her powers. "You might want to stand back," he warned her. "This might hurt a bit."

"That's alright," Hydro Girl replied. "I'm sure I can take it."

"Okay then. Stand still." With that, Kat used her power to form a force-field around the tank, then squeezed the field on it, shattering the glass into many tiny pieces. When the mess cleared, Kat looked to see if Hydro Girl was alright; sure enough, not one shard of glass damaged her at all.

"Gee!" Hydro Girl said. "I don't know how to thank you for this!"

"Well…" Kat replied, "…if you like, you can join our League of Heroes. What do you say?"

"Sounds good to me!"

Right then, the girls suddenly saw Agent Shepherd walking towards them. On his shoulder, Colonel Mael Radec lied unconscious. "I caught this fellow snooping around at the asylum," he spoke up as he slammed Radec down to the ground. "He told me about something that might draw some clues together about this invasion."

Shepherd took out four pieces of paper and showed them to the girls. One of them was a drawing of Stone, the second was of Mr. Grimm, and the third was of the Polygon Man. But the fourth sheet of paper was intentionally left blank.

"Notice how we have already caught three villains involved in this invasion?" Shepherd said, showing the drawings. "I know for a FACT that there is a FOURTH one that has to do with this. And yet, I don't know who I'm looking for! I swear I have his image in my mind, but I can't place the name!"

"I THOUGHT I felt it somewhere," Kat replied. "But my brain seems a bit clouded as well. Perhaps if we find Ratchet and Pupuru, maybe THEY will know the answer. I hear that Neptune, Nepgear, and Dart are heading for Veldin. But they're violating Ratchet's orders; he said he and Pupuru are going there alone."

"That's funny. Isn't there a preacher involved in all this?"

"That's what I'M thinking," Raven came in. "Pupuru told me all about her dream and how she met…" She stopped for a moment to think; but right then, she finally snapped. "We need to head to the mansion IMMEDIATELY!"

And so they did. After heading back to Earth, they ordered Stone to be executed so he would not be able to use his trickery on any other asylum patient.

While Shepherd took care of Stone, Kat and Raven headed for the mansion, where they would consult the others about what clue this might lead up to.

The shifters saw Qwark talking through an intercom, connecting with whoever else was fighting elsewhere. Qwark turned and saw the girls at the door, then he hung up. "What are you two here for?" he spoke to them. "If you're looking for another fight, why don't you go help Snake and Raiden. They're over at Tokyo fighting this tall tower with a giant clown head on it."

"No need," Kat replied, looking depressed. "We're only here for waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

"For Pupuru to return safely. We know she has the key to stopping this invasion. And yet we can't be involved in her mission with Ratchet. The only thing we can do for now is wait… and hope."

**FINALLY! NEXT TIME, WE SHALL SEE PUPURU AND RATCHET'S MISSION TO VELDIN! BUT THE GIRL SHOULD WATCH OUT, OR SHE'LL BE A VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE. NYUK! NYUK! NYUK!**

**(If you do not know who Curly Howard is, then you don't get the joke!)**

**UNTIL THEN, SEE YOU SOON!**


	6. Veldin

Chapter Six: Veldin

**(Note from the author: Let's go back a few hours and see what Ratchet and Pupuru were doing at the time of all the other battles in the previous chapters.)**

Ratchet and Pupuru got into a ship they borrowed from Captain Qwark; they used it to fly all the way to Veldin, the one place Ratchet had missed for years.

Along the way, Pupuru looked out the cockpit's window to view outer space for the first time. "I never thought I would actually…" She tried to say something, but she was suddenly cut off. She began to choke and wheeze heavily; Ratchet did not know what was going on at first until a second later. He began to realize that Pupuru was not used to breathing in a spaceship while traveling through outer space. She could not breathe as well as any alien who could stand in space.

Quickly, Ratchet pulled an emergency breathing mask down from the ship's ceiling; he placed it upon Pupuru's face so her choking would cease. After a few seconds, she finally began to breathe fully and more calmly. "I guess you need to practice breathing on foreign planets," Ratchet said after Pupuru calmed down. "I'll give you something special when we land."

Ratchet turned on his comlink and contacted Captain Qwark for a moment. "Qwark!" Ratchet said over the radio, a bit upset. "Why did you cut off some of the life-support system of your ship?! You almost killed Pupuru!"

"Sorry," Qwark replied. "Some thief one time stole my ship, so I used my ship's remote control to lower the life-support system and make that thief suffocate."

"And you just HAD to suffocate our friend here! I hope you're happy! Where's your remote?!"

"It broke after the last time I used it. Sorry about that."

Ratchet angrily cut off the transmission and continued to pilot the ship to Veldin. But as he approached the planet, he suddenly stopped. He stared deep into the one planet that he had not visited for a very long time. But he could not sit right there for long; the shortage of the life-support system was soon to take full effect on him as well as Pupuru.

"Hang in there, Pupuru," Ratchet whispered softly as he patted Pupuru on the back. "We'll do this together… Everything will be alright."

Everything seemed fine at first; but when Ratchet drove the ship deeper into the atmosphere of Veldin, he immediately saw that something was not right. Somehow, a blizzard was blowing everywhere as snow coated most of what Ratchet saw on the planet. Usually, beautiful plants and mountains were visible to the naked eye of a pilot, but snow was now coating almost everything.

"I don't know how Grimm did it…" Ratchet thought, "…but he is going to pay for all this! I'll show him not to mess with my home!"

He looked for his old house, where he would land and make his base. After he landed right next to it, he took something out of the storage compartment of his ship. "These special pills will help you breathe on this planet," he said, handing them to Pupuru.

Pupuru quickly swallowed one of the pills, which opened her lungs to breathe better in the air of foreign planets.

After that, Ratchet said to her in a hushed tone: "Listen carefully. I know that it's a big blizzard out there, and we wouldn't be comfortable without our coats and snow gear. But it's too late to go back and get them now; we're already very close to the conclusion of our adventure. So here's what we're going to do: we'll quickly rush out there like rabbits and unlock the door to my house. Once we get inside, we'll be comfortable again. Are you ready?"

"I'm not very sure," Pupuru replied. "But I hope we make it through this alive."

"Okay then. Ready… GO!"

With that, the ship's cockpit opened, and Ratchet and Pupuru quickly hopped out of it and started heading for the house. They had to trudge through such heavy, thick snow in order to reach their destination. When they got there, they forced off the police tape that was stuck to the door, then forced themselves inside. Once inside, Ratchet and Pupuru sat down to catch their breath after a hard trip through harsh tensions.

"That was so close," Ratchet panted. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be okay," Pupuru wearily replied. "So this is your old home?"

"Yep. This is the place where all my adventures started. This is where I built my first ship and met Clank. I'm the one responsible for his name anyway. I had to save this planet from being blown up by that cheapskate Chairman Drek. If Grimm is attempting to attack this place, it looks like another chance to save my home."

"I hope Angela is doing alright at MY home. I bet she met some of my old friends there; they must be itching to see me sometime… That is if we make it out ALIVE."

"Don't doubt me, Pupuru. At a place like this, survivors win!"

Ratchet and Pupuru got back up to their feet and looked around the place. So many things were left untouched ever since Ratchet moved away. Dust and cobwebs hung from the things that stood on dressers and shelves.

"I bet all the food I left here are way too stale," Ratchet said as he walked into the kitchen. "But we shouldn't worry about it now. We have a very important mission to take care of. We'll wait for Grimm to come here, and we'll fight him with all we can. We brought enough food with us anyway. But the most important thing is: if we are going to fight him, we'll fight him together."

Ratchet led Pupuru to up to his bedroom; when they entered, they received a blast of moonlight flowing through a nearby window. "It sure is lucky that it IS cold outside," Ratchet said calmly. "That way, such beautiful moonlight can be so bright."

He plopped himself down onto his bed, not thinking that there might have been termites or bed bugs all over it. Pupuru laid a sleeping bag on the floor (across from the bed) and lied herself down onto it. They planned to keep watch until Mr. Grimm arrived, but waiting too long made them very drowsy.

Ratchet and Pupuru passed out cold a couple of hours later and fell fast asleep. Such dizziness caused their mind to drift away, they soon forgot that Mr. Grimm would soon come to them.

Suddenly, Ratchet's left ear twitched as he listened to a thumping sound. He yanked his eyes awake and saw that Mr. Grimm was standing right over him, pointing a gun at him. "Get up and walk out of the house, and remember I am right behind you!" he spoke up to him.

**WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT? IT LOOKS LIKE MR. GRIMM IS GOING TO GET HIS MEAL AFTER ALL! OR IS HE…?**

**SEE YOU NEXT TIME!**


	7. Me on the Menu

Chapter Seven: Me on the Menu

**(Note from the author: Sorry I made the Veldin arrival scene too short. Right here, I shall tell a recap about the scene in full detail.)**

Ratchet led Pupuru up to his bedroom, carrying their heavy bags full of weapons, food, and medical supplies. Once they stepped in, they received a blast of bright moonlight beaming through the nearby window. "Wow!" Ratchet spoke up, looking out at the beautiful view. "Only such cold air can give us a brightly-shining moon! I've seen it enough times on Earth, but this is the first time viewing at such a thing on MY planet!"

Ratchet plopped himself down onto his bed, not bothering to think about any termites or bedbugs that might be scurrying around it. Suddenly, he sniffed the air around him; something was new here like the aroma of lavender. "That's strange," he chuckled. "I don't recall walking in here to smell the air of Wisconsin."

"I wish we can go there sometime," Pupuru replied as he laid her sleeping bag onto the floor. "I hear the fields are so beautiful."

"That sounds like a great idea. We can go there once the mission is complete."

After a short while, Pupuru spoke again to Ratchet very softly: "Ratchet?"

"Yes, Pupuru?" Ratchet replied quietly.

"Do you love me?"

Stunned, Ratchet answered: "Of course I do. It's very obvious."

"Yet I seem to feel something strange. It feels as if something very heavy is coming back to haunt me."

"Don't pay attention to what you hear villains say. They're only lies; they're trying to give you illusions. Just remember, Pupuru, we're with you. You can always count on us."

That was the last thing that was said before the room became very quiet. The only thing that was heard was the wind and snow blowing against the window. Ratchet could not keep himself awake; no danger was coming yet, and he soon became a little cranky. He turned and saw that Pupuru had fallen asleep on her mat. He tried to say something to her, but his eyes forced themselves shut tight.

About a half-hour later, he was suddenly awakened by the noise of thudding footsteps. He woke up to see Mr. Grimm standing over him and pointing a pistol at him. "You!" Ratchet said. "You caught me by surprise!"

"Walk out quietly and remember I am right behind you," Mr. Grimm replied, ignoring what Ratchet said.

The commotion woke up Pupuru from her sleep. "Ratchet?" she whimpered. "What's going on?"

"We can't reason with him, Pupuru," Ratchet replied to her. "We've got to obey him… for now anyway…" He made sure not to let Mr. Grimm hear that last part.

Mr. Grimm pushed Ratchet and Pupuru out of the house and out into the freezing air of the raging blizzard. They were bothered very much by the cold, but not Grimm; he was too eager to get on with his plan, he ignored the foul air.

"You represent everything I hate, Ratchet!" Mr. Grimm said as he pushed his two captives up a hill. "You are honest…hard-working…successful! While I am the evil nature of man, personified!"

"Listen very hard, Pupuru," Ratchet whispered to his human companion. "When I tell you to run, you better run. Make sure you're safe at my house; I'll catch up with you later."

"But Ratchet…" Pupuru whispered in reply, "…I can't go without you. How am I to know that you're safe?"

"Just do as I say," Ratchet said sternly. "That is an order."

"Shut up, you two!" Grimm barked in interruption. "This is where we meet the big head!"

Mr. Grimm looked up at the gray sky, waiting patiently for something to arrive. Lightning began to flash strongly as the figure of a giant purple head appeared. "I am here!" the Polygon Man exclaimed. "It is time to put the greatest part of the plan into action!"

"It's about time you got here!" Mr. Grimm replied. "This male Lombax is worthy enough to be my greatest meal! After him, bring me his female friend Angela Cross; after that, I demand you to take me to the dimension where all remaining Lombaxes live!"

"No!" Ratchet thought furiously. "It mustn't come to happen!" Quickly, he twirled and tripped Mr. Grimm with his Lombax tail. "RUN!" he shouted, taking off with Pupuru back to the house.

"You bungling fool!" the Polygon Man exclaimed. "Don't let them get away!"

Mr. Grimm got back up from the snow and reached into his pocket to take out a sharp scythe. "Every being must have its end," he thought. "And the end begins here and now!" With that, he threw his scythe directly at Ratchet.

It was a successful hit.

When Ratchet fell, his face landed into the snow, his back bleeding from the sharp scythe lodged into him. The only other thing that could be heard other than the wind was Pupuru screaming at the top of her lungs in fear. Tears pouring from her eyes, she bent down to remove the scythe from Ratchet. She turned him over to face him; his face looked dead as he was soon to be.

At first, Pupuru heard nothing from Ratchet; but then, his weary and dying voice spoke to her: "It's not too late now… I know you can change everything… Go back to the house… You can still save the universe from this invasion…"

"No!" Pupuru replied. "I'm not leaving you here!"

"You must go… Pupuru… I love you…"

As Ratchet breathed his last, Pupuru hung her head over him, crying her broken heart out. But she could not stay there forever; Mr. Grimm was coming towards her. She dropped Ratchet and quickly ran back to the house.

"Well…" Mr. Grimm thought as he picked up Ratchet's corpse. "This is my lucky day after all! I finally have my heart's desire of dinner for one. After so much time in prison, you get really tired of asylum food. It's funny…I've never had Lombax before…"

Pupuru soon made it back to Ratchet's house and forced the door behind her shut. Immediately, she ran up to Ratchet's room, tripping on the stairs in her fit. "Why did that have to be the last time I would ever see my best friend?!" she thought, her teeth gritted.

She looked out the window; at first, she saw nothing but the snowstorm. But then, her vision cleared as she saw Mr. Grimm in the distance carrying a few logs of splintered wood. Grimm used an axe to stab the logs into the ground, creating what seems like a wooden stake. He hung Ratchet's corpse onto it; from there, Grimm held up his axe and did the finishing touches to serve himself the one meal he desired.

Pupuru jerked her head away immediately; she could not bear to look anymore. She did not even want to think about the end of her friend. In a fit of confusion, she stumbled down the stairs into the main room. It was there that something seemed to change for her; she looked up and saw something shining on the kitchen counter.

Pupuru got back up to her feet and calmly walked over to it; it was a small, shiny white cube. It looked very familiar to Pupuru as her mind began to remember the last moments of her dream. But before she could dig deeper into those thoughts, she saw there was a note attached to the cube. She picked it up and read it:

"Dear Pupuru,

I know things are not the way they should be, but I know you can help to change that. As best friends, we stick together to deal with these trials and corruptions. It may be so that maybe Grimm will beat us to our victory, and so I will give you something to help change that. This here is the Time Box from your long dream. Take it and use it for good purposes. With it, you can save time and space and also explore the cosmos and dig through historical events. But more importantly, if there is a big emergency, you can use the Time Box to save lives. I know you can save the lives of many who are dying, including your dearest friends. I know you can save the universe from this invasion. I am counting on you, Pupuru.

Sincerely yours,

Ratchet"

Pupuru broke down into tears again after reading the note. This was perhaps the last memory of Ratchet she could hold. She did not think about using the Time Box at first; she was worried that it might not work as it did in the dream.

**(Note from the author: In the cancelled series, I did not give a complete explanation about the Time Box. In this story, all the details will be given.)**

Suddenly, Pupuru heard a loud pounding at the door. "Open up in there!" said a voice. "This is Dart Feld! If you do not open up, we'll break through!"

Pupuru quickly got up and ran over to the door. Once she opened it, she became surprised as to who had come. Dart, Neptune, and Nepgear had arrived to help Pupuru, but they did not come on time. "Pupuru!" Nepgear exclaimed. "We found you! We came here just in time!"

"I'm afraid you're all too late…" Pupuru whimpered in reply.

"What do you mean? Did something happen? Did you already win the battle?"

"You don't understand… Ratchet is dead…"

**IT LOOKS LIKE TROUBLE FOR THE GROWING LEAGUE OF HEROES! WITH RATCHET DEAD, HOW WILL THEY WIN THE BATTLE AGAINST MR. GRIMM, THE POLYGON MAN, AND THE MYSTERY VILLAIN (WHO WILL COME SOON)? WE'LL HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE UNTIL NEXT TIME, WHEN THE BATTLE RAGES ON! UNTIL THEN, SEE YOU SOON!**


	8. Girls Pinch Back

Chapter Eight: Girls Pinch Back

**(Note from the author: I couldn't think of any other title for this chapter. I at first thought of "The Dog Bites Back" and "The Bee Stings Back". But I had to stay true to what was happening here in this chapter. The girls won't be pinching anybody anyway. Besides, I had to think hard on that catchphrase from YouTube Poop: "Where there's smoke, they pinch back". Anyway, enjoy!)**

"I seriously hope you're not lying," Dart said, at first not believing the news that Ratchet had died from Mr. Grimm's attack.

"But it's true," Pupuru replied. "I saw him die right in front of me! Why did it have to end like this?!"

"She looks serious," Nepgear whispered to her sister. "I don't like how things are going."

Suddenly, Pupuru set her mind to a completely different subject; she now wanted to know how Neptune and her sister Nepgear came here. "How can this be?!" she thought silently. "I've only met them in the dream, and yet they're right here in front of me! Maybe, if my hypothesis is correct, my dream is slowly coming to life! Unless I'm just going insane!"

"Don't get stressed now, Pupuru," Neptune spoke to her. "We'll help you avenge Ratchet's death here and now! Let's go find that skull creep!"

Pupuru agreed to go with Neptune and the others, but she was the last to leave because of something she remembered. She took the Time Box from the counter and kept it safe inside her pocket. She was not sure if it was the correct time to use it yet. "I don't know if this thing even works," she thought. "I guess I'll have to wait and see. Perhaps this will help me from growing insane."

She went with Dart, Neptune, and Nepgear back out into the blizzard, where they would search for Mr. Grimm and avenge the tragic death of Ratchet. They easily found him, but they also noticed something different about him; he seemed a tiny bit chubby, as if he had eaten a big feast.

"We're too late!" Pupuru thought. "He had already eaten…"

"I don't what to say…" Mr. Grimm spoke, halfway drunk, "…but that was the best Lombax I've ever had! But now that YOU'RE here, I wonder how good Dragoon tastes… or maybe a GODESS!"

"Not if I can help it!" Dart replied furiously, transforming himself into the Red-Eyed Dragoon. "I'll make sure you don't eat another day!"

"There's nothing you can do to stop me! He may have given me food...money… but he also gave me something else important: FREEDOM!"

"There it goes again!" Neptune thought. "Who is it that's been causing all this? The Polygon Man may have such great power, but there is someone else with an even GREATER power! Who is it?!" Enraged and puzzled, she struck out at Grimm very hard with a critical edge. It tripped him down to the snowy ground, but it did not kill him. Rather than mercilessly killing Grimm, she merely stunned him.

Grimm was so full of what he just ate, he barely took a stand to attack back. Not even his scythe could save him from the wrath of the Red-Eyed Dragoon and Purple Heart. The battle was won by the ones who would soon join the all-powerful League of Heroes. "Now there's ONE thing that you'll be forced to eat," Neptune taunted. "YOUR WORDS!"

"You don't plan to kill him?" Dart interrupted, holding Grimm by the arm.

"No," Neptune answered in reply. "I only wish to take him back to the asylum. I heard that Stone has been executed, so he won't help any more jailbreaks." Then to Grimm, she said: "I know how tired you are about asylum food, but you'll just have to live with it anyway!"

"No…" Mr. Grimm quietly hissed. "I don't think so…" With that, he suddenly lunged himself out of Dart's grasp and bit really hard into Neptune's arm. Neptune screamed in pain as Grimm yanked himself away and ran off, successful in his sample of a goddess. "Tasty…" he thought as he hurried away. "But it won't be the end yet! I'm saving that goddess for dessert!"

Pupuru and Nepgear hurried over to Neptune to check her wounds. "Don't worry about me," Neptune barked at them. "It's not fatal!"

"But you don't understand," Dart replied. "I know for a fact that he'll be coming back for you; he's saving you for a big meal."

"Maybe you're right. Sorry…"

As nighttime continued on, the snowstorm raged to a stronger blizzard. Pupuru led the others back to Ratchet's house, where she healed Neptune's wounds with the little magic she had brought with her on this mission.

"Are you sure you want to use it for this case?" Neptune asked her as she transformed back to her normal form.

"I forgot to bring a full amount," Pupuru replied. "And so I feel it is best for me to use it for something better than fighting."

"I understand your reason, but what about my sister? She may not be physically hurt, but something inside her MIND is starting to bug her."

Neptune's guesses were correct; Nepgear, now back to her true form, was sleeping on one of the reclining chairs as a dream suddenly struck her head.

"What have I done?" she thought. "I not only let Grimm escape, but I also let my sister get bitten by him! That freak has gone too far! I don't know what else to think…" Her mind went completely out of control as she dreamed about her killing all her friends. She slaughtered them like the psychopath she had battled, beginning to be as dangerous as Mr. Grimm, Billy Ray Stillwell, and Needles Kane.

**(Note from the author: We all know that Needles Kane is Sweet Tooth, right? He appeared as a vision in our first story with the Dark Knight, right? He's a clue to who this mystery villain might be, right? I'm saying too much, right?)**

Finally, the next and final part of her dream came. After thirty years, Nepgear had grown into a woman, strong in her murdering abilities. But it soon came to an end when she was finally captured, bound and gagged by the man known as Calypso (William Sparks is his real name).

"I had done it," Mr. Grimm thought as he confronted Calypso. "The battle was over. I had won the contest. So I went and saw Calypso; it turns out he was a man of his word. I got my prize. After all these years, the goddess looked exactly the same. She didn't know who I was, but I recognized HER. I've been seeing her face in my nightmares for thirty years. Calypso has one last bonus for me: dinner for one."

Nepgear struggled as hard as she could to break free of the ropes that bound her, but she was not able to escape. She was the victim of Grimm's promised attack as she felt his axe fall onto her flesh.

That was when she woke up. She tried so hard to stay awake so she can control her fears, but something else came to her mind right then; she heard a mysterious but familiar voice call to her.

"Two nightmares in one night…" the voice spoke up. "This must be a strange night for you. So a few mistakes have been made… it wasn't your fault."

"But it SHOULD be," Nepgear blindly replied. "I should have saved my sister in time, but I was too lazy thinking about Pupuru. Why hadn't I been more careful? I should have sensed something would go wrong! It's my fault! I'm the one to blame for all this! I should have been there in time to save Ratchet!"

"Ratchet… he didn't die easy. You should know…he begged for you to help him as Grimm killed him!"

Enraged, Nepgear punched herself to snap out of it. She panted heavily, trying to keep herself awake. She did not know of what would come next…

But only one person knew what would happen, that is about the evil plan of the Polygon Man.

"My friend…" the same voice called to the Polygon Man. "I know now of their scheme, but I shall put a stop to it once and for all…"

"Are you seriously thinking about appearing in your human form?" the Polygon Man replied.

"I believe it would fulfill MY part of the plan. Soon, it will make the dream REALLY come to life as I make things the way they were before. Now I am infatuated and fascinated by Purple Sister's nightmares of becoming the most powerful goddess by killing others. Perhaps to spice up my plan, I'll kidnap Nepgear and convince her to become one of us and also become the most powerful goddess, thus killing all of our enemies! I cannot wait!"

**WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE LIKE A BIG PIZZA PIE, THAT'S AMORE. WHEN HE LUNGES OUT AND TAKES A BITE OF YOUR SNOUT, THAT'S A MORAY! GET IT? A MORAY EEL? HEE HEE HEE HEE! I SAY THE FUNNIES.**

**IF YOU DO NOT KNOW THAT OLD ITALIAN SONG, THEN YOU DON'T GET THE JOKE.**

**SEE YOU NEXT TIME!**


	9. Dream Machine

Chapter Nine: Dream Machine

After seeing so much insanity in Nepgear, Pupuru decided that she had enough of what was going on. "That's it!" she exclaimed loudly in anger. "I can't take this anymore!" With that, she quickly reached into her pocket and yanked out the Time Box that Ratchet had given her. It glowed bright as she held it up high above her head.

Willing to test if this was real or not, she tossed the Time Box onto the floor. It grew to a bigger size, big enough for a live being to fit into it. The side of the Box opened, allowing Pupuru to step inside and look around.

**(Note from the author: I was never able to fully describe the Time Box in the cancelled season ten. That was right when the series ended. Now we get to see the Box fully.)**

Inside were completely white walls; there was nothing else but a viewing screen on one of the walls. In the center of the room was the main power console that controlled everything. They were the controls that would bring the user to whatever desired place in time and space.

Pupuru was very surprised and excited once she saw the place. "This is incredible!" she thought. "This is like some fantastic dream! But this time I'm wide awake! Maybe…I AM going insane!"

"Don't get over-excited," Neptune said to her as she walked in. "I know you're trying to forget about your dream and stick to reality. Why not use this Time Box to bring back Ratchet? Does it work that way?"

"I don't know if it will," Pupuru replied, observing the controls. "Let's see what I can do. Wait a minute! Suddenly, I'm starting to gain the knowledge of this entire Time Box! I'll travel back a few hours to the time when Grimm captured Ratchet and me. At that part in time, I'll snatch Ratchet from there before he can get killed. That ought to do it!"

Pupuru pulled a few levels and pressed the correct buttons for her plan to work out. And sure enough, Ratchet began to materialize right before her eyes. He lied on the floor as he fully formed, this time breathing fully. Pupuru hurriedly knelt down and pressed her hand against Ratchet's chest; his heart was breathing normally.

"Ratchet!" Pupuru exclaimed desperately. "Wake up!"

Ratchet's eyes slowly opened to see the distraught Pupuru kneeling over him. He smiled softly as he stood himself back up to his feet. "You actually did it!" he spoke up. "You finally used the Time Box! I KNEW you would bring me back the first chance you got!"

Pupuru shivered a bit before replying. She was very shaken up from all this chaos and confusion that had occurred throughout the past hours. It seemed like she could take this no more. "I AM going mad…" she whimpered. "It seems like NONE of this is real at all…"

"What are you talking about?" Ratchet replied. "We talked about this before; you do know that all this IS real."

"Ratchet… What's going on here? It feels like something just yanked itself out of my head!"

"Pupuru, remember what I told you about the lies of the enemy? They're all just illusions, so don't believe them."

"You're right… I AM going insane! EVERYTHING is an illusion! I should not believe it all!"

"I don't mean it that way! Pupuru, you weren't listening to me! If you still think that all this is STILL a dream, then I could take you back to your hometown if I want to!"

"Ratchet!" Neptune snapped from behind. "This isn't like you! You took her in for a good reason; surely you wouldn't want to just throw her out the window!"

"But if she keeps this up, we'll have to put her in the asylum," Ratchet replied. "I don't want to live with this! Get her out of here and take her home!"

"But Ratchet…"

"That's an order! Get her out of my sight!"

Forced to obey, Neptune took Pupuru by the hand and led her out of the Time Box. Nepgear and Dart followed along, leaving Ratchet all alone in this machine he made for the mad girl.

"I thought I had it made," Ratchet thought silently as he stood there facing the floor. "I thought I was successful in fulfilling my heart's desire, but I was dead wrong. I thought we could take Pupuru in with was and have her with us as family, but instead this whole thing gave me broken promises. I love her like a daughter; she means so much to me! No! This isn't right! This is not the real Pupuru that I know! Where is my loving friend?!"

His thoughts sunken deep into hatred, even Ratchet began to grow insane. "Maybe we're right," he began to mutter. "We're ALL mad! We should all be locked up in an asylum and be kept there throughout the rest of our lives! This entire universe…has grown insane!"

Before anything else happened, Nepgear entered back in and interrupted. "Ratchet…" she spoke up, "I really think that this is unfair. I know things may not look real and that it can be very deceiving, but we just need enough faith to know it."

Ratchet sighed heavily and replied: "I've heard an old saying that faith is the confident assurance of what we hope for, and that it might happen. It's the evidence of things we cannot yet see. Even though things right in front of us don't look real, they actually are. It's like life; it's not a giant dream. Now I really regret how I treated Pupuru. Can you bring her back here please?"

"Sure. Hopefully, she'll realize that we are her TRUE friends." Nepgear left and brought Pupuru back into the Time Box. She still looked distraught, but she stood there long enough for Ratchet to apologize.

"Pupuru, I'm very sorry for the way I acted towards you. I myself was starting to go mad until I knew one thing that helps us open our eyes to reality: faith. We love you, Pupuru, and we really mean it. You know the old saying that perfect love casts out all fear, right?"

Meanwhile, all the way in Los Angeles, on Earth, the preacher known as Jebidiah knelt in the sanctuary of his church. He was praying for all the madness to stop and for faith to increase a thousandfold.

"Lord Jesus!" Jebidiah prayed. "Please open our eyes to the fact that You are always there with us! I want You to come to us and stay by our side at all times! We want our eyes to be opened so we can see You! God, You are with us throughout all the days of our lives! I want to thank You for who You are and what You have done! We love You, Lord!"

Back at Veldin, Pupuru stopped her twitching and stood completely still. She suddenly burst into tears and quickly embraced Ratchet. "I'm so sorry, Ratchet!" she exclaimed. "I was such an idiot until you came for me! Thank you so much!"

"I don't think I deserve all the credit," Ratchet replied. "Wasn't there a preacher at Los Angeles just a moment ago?"

"I love you, Ratchet! You're my best friend!"

"Wow!" Ratchet thought. "She really means it! She knows now that everything IS real! This means I have not lost her!"

After Nepgear left with the others, Ratchet took Pupuru back to his house. He sat her down on one of the recliners and let her rest for a while. But she could not help but ask: "What happened to Mr. Grimm? He's still out there, isn't he?"

"I'm not sure," Ratchet replied. "Although, I think his stomach might be empty by now. He'll never have OFFICIALLY eaten a Lombax. But I have no idea where he is right now."

Pupuru suddenly moaned, placing her hand on her head. "Something is bothering me…" she whimpered.

"I hope it's not a fever or a headache," Ratchet replied.

"No… It's not that… It's someone awfully familiar!"

"It's a PERSON? Maybe…it's that fourth man we've been looking for!"

"You are indeed correct!" a voice boomed. It was the same voice that had been inside Nepgear's head. It sounded way too familiar to both Ratchet and Pupuru; they already knew who it was simply by listening.

The duo then saw the figure of a slim man approaching. He had straight red hair covered by a round hat. He wore an orange suit with tails, with pink polka-dots all over it. He also wore white pants with thin red stripes on them. In addition to everything, he wore white rubber gloves and tap-dancing shoes. Finally, he held a can in his hand; he twirled it around in excitement, ready to fully show himself.

"No!" Ratchet exclaimed. "It can't be! NEEDLES!"

"It is certainly a pleasure seeing you two again!" Needles replied. "After all those wild adventures we fought through, you two haven't changed a bit! Well let me tell you something, mister: NEITHER HAVE I! Even if you try to defeat me, you won't stand a chance; the Polygon Man is with me here!"

Right behind Needles, the giant head of the Polygon Man descended down into the scene. "You fools!" he exclaimed. "Mere flesh against supreme power is no challenge at all!"

"You better be listening, boys and girls…" Needles continued. "…because he absolutely right! It was I who reproduced the formula that creates the Gargoyles. Let me explain… After Marcus Kane freed himself from his form of the Dark Knight, he thought he saw the last of me. But he was dead wrong; even though my side of his mind was gone, my LIFE remained alive. I entered the body of a nearby spider and crawled my way to the Polygon Man. He gave me this new body, based on the form you saw in your dream. I saved the Gargoyle production formula from being destroyed by the SWAT team that came by later. Once Mr. Grimm and Stone arrived, I gave it to them and let them continue the production.

"Now that I have you right where I want you, I'll have the honor of finishing you for good! I'll put you both to sleep, then I'll kill you for good so you can be trapped inside your dreams forever!"

"You're such a fool, Needles!" Ratchet barked. "Now that we know your plan, we know what we'll do to get rid of you forever!"

"Don't bet on it, bub! Once I finish you both, I'll feel the sunshine of my victory!"

"Sunshine…" Ratchet silently thought. He looked ahead of himself and saw that the sun was rising, marking the early morning.

Quickly, Ratchet grabbed a firm hold of Pupuru and warned her to get down to the floor. Once they did, Needles became very confused; he turned around and saw that the sun was shining directly towards him. He screamed at the top of his lungs in pain as the sun's brightness engulfed him. He backed away a step, but tripped on the next, bringing him down to the floor. As for the Polygon Man, he desperately fled to the other end of the planet, where night occurred.

Ratchet and Pupuru got back up to their feet and looked around. Sunshine glowed in the house as the dawn of a new day had come… a day of victory!

"Is he really gone?" Pupuru asked quietly.

"I'm not sure," Ratchet simply replied, looking down at the pile of Needles' clothes on the floor. "He may have escaped this body, but who knows where his ghost form had gone? I know that we will find him again and we will defeat him!"

"It looks like our mission is finally over."

"It could be… Who knows what can happen next? Now that this invasion has ended, we can go back home and get some rest. I don't really want to leave this place, but we've got a family waiting. Let's go!"

Needles had hidden away and brought his ghostly form into the nearest tree. There he stayed until whenever his next plan would go into action.

**AND THAT IS THE END OF OUR STORY! THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND READING! WHO KNOWS IF NEEDLES IS UP TO SOMETHING NEW? WHO KNOWS IF MR. GRIMM IS STILL AT LARGE? WHO KNOWS IF THE LEAGUE OF HEROES WILL GO ON ANOTHER GREAT ADVENTURE? WHO KNOWS IF THIS IS THE DAWN OF A NEW SERIES? IS IT?**

**THANK YOU VERY MUCH!**


End file.
